Birthday party in La Baneasa

Being alone on your birthday in a foreign county has been a very humbling experience.  No friends or family to high five you in a.m. before you start your day, especially when you're a day ahead of everyone else.  In fact I started my day with a screaming toddler, thanks Harlow.  Something about her having to wear her boots instead of crocs in the 40 degree weather, a battle I finally won after mentioning the word ice cream a couple times.
Now I was able to ichat with my mama for a bit, but its just not the same.
Soooooo there was only one thing left to do when you're feeling down
meditate?
or
yep that's right
 SHOP!

 Uh Oh somebody got a new jacket!!!!

Harlow and I took a cab over to the La Baneasa and spent the entire day hiking through that massive mall.  I didn't go crazy spending money because I'm cheap thanks to all those college years and when it comes down to it, it better take my breath away or it'll probably just sit in my closet collecting dust. But this jacket is a winner and it feels pretty amazing on.

After lunch I took Harlow over to the wierdo kid land in the mall.  I say wierdo because they had things I've never seen before.  You know those little metal rides that you put a couple quarters in and kids shake around in them?  Well check these ones out..

those are teacups, and if that's not wierd enough for you check out this one, even Harlow was like what?

They were giant stuffed animals that shook my little bugs butt off!!! 




Since Harlow was a sport and let me drag her in and out of every store and even was quiet long enough for me to get a manicure I treated her to a giant ice cream and these little twinkle toes.

I did have an uncomfortable experience at lunch when I was in line to order some food, apparently not everyone speaks english here and this lady was very frustrated with me.  She yelled at me and dumped all my food out and shoved my money at me.  I felt so helpless all I did was stand there and say um chicken?  Then they guy behind me started yelling at her and she made me another plate and shoved it at me.  If we were at home I would have asked for the manager but here I just felt completely stupid, so I took my food sat a table and tried not get all birthday emotional.

When I got home these were waiting for me from Jason

Thanks baby, I know it was difficult to find a flower delivery here and in between the chaos on set, thanks for thinking of me.

I'm thankful all that I have today, happy birthday to me.
Now it's time for red wine and chocolate, but first I have to get this one to bed, wish me luck!  If you get a chance checkout this video of Harlow attempting to sing Mama Happy Birthday, so freaking cute, I love her!!! Happy Mama

Gray Day in Little Paris

This morning I woke up to the sound of our laundry bag tearing, sending a week and half's worth of clothes all over the floor.  I figured that was a hint it was time to do some laundry.  After a little investigation I found a price list for laundry services, 5 euros per shirt WHAT?  That's like 10 american dollars and with as much laundry we had it probably would have cost over 100 dollars.  So the next best thing was throwing all those clothes in the bathtub with some laundry soap and doing things the old fashion way, scrub, scrub and more scrubbing.  Half way through the day I was done, there where clothes hanging everywhere, I had a couple of blisters and some incredible sore hands. 

Since it was really gray outside I bundled Harlow and I up with as many clothing articles as possible and headed for the mall.  I was looking for some sort of version of Febreze since everything smells like cigarettes and a new toy to keep Harlow busy. 

We walked through old town and in the middle of all the hustle and bustle was this handsome fellow taking it all in, I love him.

 Why do the strays have to be so lovely here?  They're tempting me, I want them all!!  I read somewhere that most airlines will let you fly dogs from Romania back to the states for free!  Guess they really them to have homes.  Seriously you've never seen so many homeless dogs, they even know when to cross the streets with all the people, you can see them standing at the lights waiting to cross.  Hmm I wonder how I could catch one, oh god then I'd really be the crazy tourist lady trying to steal the dogs.

I found this pretty little hideaway as I walking down the street, you don't see stuff like that at home.  This was an alleyway with tiny shops and restaurants.

There's antique markets all over the place.  I don't know much about antiques so I have no idea what to look for.  But I did like this guy walking around playing music in a top hat with his two pet parakeets and a tiny white mouse.  I swear the parakeets were chirping along with the music. 
Yep now I've seen it all...

It was freezing yesterday, the coldest day yet poor Harlow kept holding her hands up in the air trying to show me that they hurt, hopefully she'll learn to keep her gloves on. 

 

We had a couple of hot pretzels for lunch with loads of salt on them, yum, and for only 1 lei what a deal!  Pretzels for lunch, who knew?  I just copied everyone else standing in line at lunch time, you know so I look like I fit in with the locals.

When we finally made it to the mall we walked into Carrefour (Euro Target) and put all our jackets in a locker because they crank the heat up so high inside.  After searching every isle I couldn't understand any of the labels I bought something some kind of fabric softner spray that smelled good.  Harlow threw a major screaming tantrum because she wanted to pull the cart, they have those baskets you carry in the grocery store only the handle pulls up and it rolls on the ground.  Well she was pushing it but running into everyone and causing major traffic jams in the store so I grabbed the basket and that did it, she exploded.  Everyone was looking at me and the heat was up so high in the store my face was on fire and I'm sure my blood pressure was sky high.  Oh the joys of terrible twos.  Maybe I wouldn't have been so embarrassed if I was in my own Target but being in another country has made me a bit insecure.

Finally we made it home and the little bug was passed out.  Which gave me a nice 30 minutes to have a cup of hot tea and stuff a jelly filled pastry in my mouth, oh man I'm going to really put on some weight here ;)

Check Harlow's little winter outfit I got at this french store called Grain de Ble.  So sweet and affordable, those thick plum winter pants are insulated and we only $17, something that quality at the gap would have easily gone for $50.

Well Harlow and I are off to the park it's sunny today.

Four more months of an adventure left!!

xoxoxo

Ps didn't even spell check or reread sorry for mistakes but Harlow is pulling on my hand.

Old Town Lipscani

There's a price to pay for enjoying life on the other side of the globe. This week I completely missed Halloween, it was late in the evening that I realized heeey it was Halloween today.  Well at least I was able to throw Harlow in her cute little ladybug costume (thanks Mama Sharon)  while we were still back home for the Burbank Boo Bash. 

But now the Giants have won, freaking WON the world series and I missed that too.  Winning the world series isn't something I can repeat next year, but perhaps I can watch the games when I get back home and pretend not to know the outcome?  Ya right Michelle, never going to happen.

So Halloween night we did manage to hop in a taxi and head over to old town Lipscani.  Just listening to Jason try to pronounce Lipscani to the cab driver was worth the whole night, good job babe :)  We probably didn't need to take a taxi since it was 5 minutes away but oh the adventures when you go for a quick ride on the streets here, hold on to your hats or in our case hold on to your baby. 

Old town was lovely and packed full of hipsters out enjoying all the clubs, pubs and restaurants.
Check out the video below for a quick review of the history.  There's a portion of the video that talks about how the city wasn't sure if they should preserve or destroy the ruins within the city.  Today they decided to preserve the ruins, in the video you can see the underground arches, they've since lit them and enclosed them with thick glass so you can look down and view them from the street.  I'll try to get a photo next time we're there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUS4Bavq8co&feature=player_embedded

All the streets were cobblestone and with uber hip restaurants and hotels that have been turned into clubs.  The music was pumping and there were people everywhere.  We settled for dinner outside the pub Bordello which was built in 1714.

We ate tappas and drank the local beer Ciuc which taste pretty much like a Stella lager.  Inside the building there was the most amazing wood spiral staircase. I tried to take a picture but it doesn't even capture an ounce of how beautiful and haunting it was. I guess I should have taken it when I was at the bottom of the stairs, but then someone would have saw me, and like I said totally undercover tourist here.  Sooo use your imagination :)

We spent dinner falling in love, madly in love, even Harlow was swept off her feet by this handsome fellow.   He was one of the MANY, I'm talking hundreds of strays I've seen since we've been here.  they just lay on the streets and sleep.  The locals feed them, there are even places that collect scraps for the dogs.  Every dog I've encountered has been the sweetest most gentle creature.  We were talking and decided that if Ceasar Chavez was here he'd say the city and it's people must have calming energy that rubs off on the dogs.

 Take a look at that face, such a sweet boy.  I'm gonna find this guy again and I swear I'm bringing him home with me!

Love to all my family and friends or whoever you are reading this, let me know you're out there.

xoxo

You better shop around

Since Jason had the weekend off I felt much more comfortable exploring the city with him.
Saturday we hitched a ride over to the La Baneasa Shopping Center where all of my dreams came true.
Seriously this mall was massive and the stores were incredible.  We only made it through the first half before calling it quits.  But I'll be back, and I'm going to need a couple extra suitcases after :)

All the stores where comparable to Zara, the quality of everything seems much nicer then our crappy Forever 21 and H and M, but at a reasonable price.  There's one store in peticular called Bershka

 that had an awesome selection of super cute and affordable real leather jackets.  A wall full of flat thigh high boots that I've never even seen before and must purchase immediately, did somebody say birthday shopping?  Sorry Jason but if I have to spend my birthday here alone, I'm going to have purchase myself this little beauty, only 430 lei which converts to about 150 dollars which isn't too bad for a leather jacket.  Oh and maybe I'll need these shoes too, you know to match?  Check out the rest of their stuff, the possibilties are endless
http://www.bershka.com/coleccion.php



My other new discovery was Zara Home store, not that I can lug any housewares back overseas, but I can dream about it as I walk through their beautiful bed displays.  My style everything right down to their picture frames.  They even had a children's bedroom line with cute hot pink duvets and vintage looking pillow cases.  Jason gave me the eye when I put a beautiful knit hot pink and white blanket in my cart for Harlow.  "Really Michelle?  We're not taking that on the plane!"

Damn...





Also I discover Carrefour which I'm assuming is Europe's version of Target.  This place was crazzzy big with a full sized grocery store too.  I found one about a 20 minute walk from our place. So now I know where I can buy diapers and pretty much anything else I'll need.


  The mall 20 minutes from our apartment is called Unirea and it's really bizarre inside, almost like a giant department store but if you take a closer look they are little shops within 4 floors.  I'll probably end up spending more time here since it's within walking distance.  All this walking I can see why people eat so many carbs here, you can shed it in a matter of minutes just walking.  Everybody walks and I've seen a lot of people fall :( yesterday one woman fell so hard I heard it from across the street. So many people and the streets are old and in poor condition it's bound to happen.

But on a happier note  we found an amazing park right down the street!  It's beautiful and reminds me of Central Park with all the trees and row boats in the lake.  I took a couple pictures on the iphone located in my mobile me galley.
http://gallery.me.com/michellehamer#gallery

For now things are pretty good over here, I've got everything I need.  Now if we could just get used to the time change everything would be perfect.

Till next time, thanks for reading.

La revedere!! (goodbye

Bucharest Romania, let's try this again

My first year as a mother was much more consuming then I had thought it would be.  Instead of a creative relief, blogging always felt like another nagging item on my list of things to do that seemed to never get crossed off. 

So here I am sitting in my tiny apartment in Romania with a 19 month old daughter, looking for a proper way to pass time.  Jason is working on Ghost Rider 2 and we're along for the ride.  I think it's important in the film industry to keep the family together as much as possible.  Harlow needs to at least see her father's face before she falls asleep at night.  Besides I don't think I could be away from my husband's jokes for four months, no one makes me laugh like him. 

Above are a couple pictures of the city, I didn't take them because I didn't want to be that guy with my camera.  Pretty sure no one here is a tourist, everyone seems to know what they are doing and where they are going but me.  The first picture above is what we saw when we drove into Bucharest it's called the Arch of Triumph the driver explained it's history but I wasn't paying attention because Harlow was cracking me in the back of the head with a book, but apparently it's supposed to be similar to the Arch in France.

This is my first time in Europe, and things really are so different here.  The city is old, I'm talking really old where everything looks like it's falling apart.  So immediately I thought uh oh this place is rough and scary. At home when a city is falling apart it usually means you're in the ghetto. But after a day out and about I realized that's not the case at all.    

Bucharest, Romania is around 551 years old with some serious wrinkles from wars and earthquakes to prove it.  Most of Europe refers to Bucharest as "Little Paris of the East"  (Rachel you would love it here.)  I find myself constantly thinking of France when I hear people speak the language which is mostly latin based so spanish/Italian and tons French words.  But really I think of France because all people eat here is bread and cheese.  And no one I mean NO ONE is overweight, seriously everyone is super skinny and I've been on the look out, especially after grocery shopping yesterday, talk about slim pickings.  Nothing was healthy, bread, cheese, tomatoes and weird canned or dehydrated stuff.  Wow do I sound like an uncultured American or what??

Yesterday I tried to find a mall with Harlow strapped to my back, of course the first thing I go searching for is a place to shop because let's be honest buying things makes me feel good and consuming fills the void, what?   So after trying to translate directions on google, yeah I still can't figure out how to change the language on there, I'm sure its very easy but it's not working out for me.  Anyway I figured it couldn't be that hard to find, (this coming from someone who uses her iphone to find the post office right down the street in Burbank) cut to 5 hours later the mall that was supposedly 10 minutes from our apartment was still no where to be found.  This place is HUGE and everything looks the same and none of the streets make sense, there are backs alleys that lead to no where and cars parked all along the sidewalks and people everywhere.  Cute little Romanians, women in their hip trench coats and high heeled boots and hot euro men in their slick little leather jackets smoking it up on every street corner.

My feet are killing me, I haven't adjusted to the time yet, but I think I'm going to like this place.

Four more months to go...


PS  I'm going to have to type these posts fast with my crazy toddler, she demands my attention 24/7 so if you're sensitive to spelling and grammar mistakes I apologize ahead of time.

Moving

If all goes well, we'll be moving into our new home next weekend. Today we spent a good part of the day at Home Depot just educating ourselves on materials and their costs. It all really adds up, especially if you have good taste. But I cant wait to start picking out tiles and cabinets and colors, its all so creative.

In other news Harlow learned to clap on Saturday and it melted our hearts. Seriously everything she does just kills me, she's my most favorite part of my life.

Missing

Looks like I fell off the face of the planet for a month.  I honestly couldn't find a free moment.   I really used to love blogging on a daily basis.  But lately I just couldn't push myself to open up.  Harlow has been teething, we're buying our first home and life has been chaotic.  The worst part is everyday I felt guilty for not posting, like I was letting Harlow down.  Life has been flying by, everyday she grows and changes.  I feel like everyday I forget to post I'm missing a chance to document her.

It's hard to watch your child grow because it forces you to come to terms with your own mortality.  Ya I know we've all heard it a million times before, life is short, but damn it really really short.  My baby is leaving and soon a toddler will take her place.  I thought I would welcome each change excited for the new but I find myself trying to hold onto everything even her clothes.  I remember when we were leaving the hospital with her and I just started crying because she was already 5 days old, 5 days gone and never coming back.  Ridiculous right?  Maybe it hormones.


So, I have some catch up posting to, Halloween, my birthday and thanksgiving.  I'll do that with pictures, also once we have all the details on the house, I'll post pictures.  Did I mention it has a swimming pool? So exciting!!!

Harlow Raine 8 months old